SEASON CHAMPIONS, PART III —
SSS Singlehanded Monohull Crinan II, Wyliecat 30 Don Martin, SSS For singlehanders in even-numbered years, the Singlehanded Transpacific Yacht Race is a counter in the season championship series. Don Martin, a first-timer, finished that race from Tiburon to Hanalei Bay, Kauai, in second place overall. Second-place overall finishes in the SSS Corinthian and Round the Rocks races — and the overall win in the Singlehanded Farallones — placed him on top of the standings. He wore his 1992 Singlehanded Farallones sweatshirt to the SSS awards meeting in November. "I am not an overnight sensation," he said. "I've been working at this so long and so hard. "This year a lot of it comes from the Singlehanded TransPac. I look back on the last couple of days of that race, when Left to right: Terry Benett, Ruth Suzuki and Gordie Nash. Terry filled in for Ruth on 'Arcadia' in SSS when she couldn't make it.
I lost my autopilots and I was driving, as absolutely wonderful. If I was at the best ski resort in the Alps and had a chance to ski, I'd want to ski as much as possible. And I got the chance to drive as much as possible in some of the greatest conditions. For Don Martin those of you coming along, just hang in there, and maybe your day will come." SSS Doublehanded Monohull Arcadia, Mod. Santana 27 Gordie Nash, RYC "You don't know how difficult it is to win this," said Gordie Nash, who also won the Doublehanded Division in 2008, 2013 and 2014. Gordie gave Bren Meyer of the Wyliecat 30 Uno a lot of credit. "He actually beat us in every race he sailed, but he didn't do the ocean races. Bren should also be recognized as a great sailor." He also gave Bill Erkelens credit. "Whenever he shows up, he wins. "When you're a little kid, you remember looking up at the Paul Elvstroms and the Hank Easoms and you think, ‘These guys know everything. They're the masters.' And now you realize the juniors at the yacht club are looking at this generation thinking, ‘Wow, they know everything, they're the masters. I don't think I know everything that these young kids are thinking I do. I posed that question to Hank Easom and he laughed and he said, ‘In reality, the old masters didn't know a lot. We know more, and the kids coming up, they have three generations of knowledge; they're the ones we have to look forward to.' The youngsters are coming up and they are going to know a lot. This organization,
SSS Singlehanded Series winner Don Martin prepares to start the Singlehanded TransPac off the Tiburon shoreline.
there's nothing broke. This organization needs to be continued, and with the help of these youngsters." SSS Doublehanded Multihull LookinGood II, Corsair 31 trimaran Rafi Yahalom, BAMA Last year, Rafi Yahalom won the Doublehanded Multihull division with Lookin' Good, a 24-ft Corsair Sprint trimaran. For the 2018 season, he moved up to a Corsair 31, LookinGood II. "It was a steep learning curve to learn to sail my new-for me (2003) Corsair 31 1D," commented Rafi. "My single crew, for every race, had to work hard Rafi Yahalom to handle the sails and the lines and tame the 'beast'. So I'm very thankful to Marcos McGee, David Kuettel and Dan Mone who made doublehanded racing fun! "In addition to just showing up and having great people aboard, the reason for our success was that some of our competitors chose to race singlehanded and were scored separately."
LOOKINGOOD II
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he end of the old year and the beginning of the new are a traditional time to look back at the past 12 months. In these pages, we're reflecting upon the 2018 season of racing, and the champions whose success might inspire the rest of us to strive for improvement in 2019. This installment moves the focus from one-design classes (profiled in the November and December issues) and onto the mostly handicap-rating divisions of the Singlehanded Sailing Society, Bay Area Multihull Association and Yacht Racing Association.
